The Ancestors’ Geneameme challenge from Geniaus

The list should be annotated in the following manner:Things you have already done or found: bold face typeThings you would like to do or find: italicize (colour optional)
Things you haven’t done or found and don’t care to: plain type
You are encouraged to add extra comments in brackets after each item

Which of these apply to you?

Can name my 16 great-great-grandparents

Can name over 50 direct ancestors

Have photographs or portraits of my 8 great-grandparents

Have an ancestor who was married more than three times

Have an ancestor who was a bigamist (he wasn’t but his 4th wife was)

Met all four of my grandparents ( I was lucky enough to have three of them into my teens or beyond.)

Met one or more of my great-grandparents (all pre-deceased my arrival)

Named a child after an ancestor (coincidentally though I knew it was similar)

Bear an ancestor’s given name/s (not having an ancestral name was apparently intentional –ironically I’ve always felt like a Kate, a recurring family name on all sides: too late to bother changing it now)

Have an ancestor from Great Britain or Ireland (all branches except my German one).

Have an ancestor from Asia

Have an ancestor from Continental Europe (George Kunkel always said he was from Bavaria, not Germany)

Have an ancestor from Africa

Have an ancestor who was an agricultural labourer

Have an ancestor who had large land holdings (a few with centuries of property either leased or owned but not large land holdings)

Have an ancestor who was a holy man – minister, priest, rabbi (with all those Catholics, no direct ancestors, and none in the Protestant denominations either that I’ve found though lots in one family serving as churchwardens, overseers of the poor etc)

Have an ancestor who was a midwife

Have an ancestor who was an author (oh, how I wish)

Have an ancestor with the surname Smith, Murphy or Jones (but try googling Partridge or Kent)

Have an ancestor with the surname Wong, Kim, Suzuki or Ng

Have an ancestor with a surname beginning with X

Have an ancestor with a forename beginnining with Z

Have an ancestor born/died on 25th December (my great-grandfather died on Xmas Day, six weeks after his wife died. They left a large family orphaned ranging from 21 to 2)

Have an ancestor born on New Year’s Day(not a direct ancestor, but a few siblings)

Have blue blood in your family lines (blue babies with Rh- blood, but no blue-blood royalty)

Have a parent who was born in a country different from my country of birth

Have a grandparent who was born in a country different from my country of birth (two: Scots Presbyterian on one side and Irish Catholic on the other)

Can trace a direct family line back to the eighteenth century

Can trace a direct family line back to the seventeenth century or earlier

Have seen copies of the signatures of some of my great-grandparents

Have ancestors who signed their marriage certificate with an X

Have a grandparent or earlier ancestor who went to university (no, mine is the first university-educated generation as far as I know)

Have an ancestor who was convicted of a criminal offence (he and a few others went to jail over perjury but released soon after appeals to the Qld Executive in relation to the court case)

Have an ancestor who was a victim of crime (only minor events: one ancestor had his chickens stolen, as he was a butcher this would have been a hassle, another had his horse stolen. However one was a witness to an event in one of Qld’s first court cases which gave me new evidence on his own life.)

Have published a family history online or in print (Grassroots Queenslanders: The Kunkel Family tells the story of the Kunkel family from Dorfprozelten, Bavaria and the O’Brien family from Ballykelly, Broadford, Co Clare, Ireland. It was published in 2003. Time for another?)

Have visited an ancestor’s home from the 19th or earlier centuries: I’ve lacked the courage to door-knock current owners of most family homes overseas while in situ but we have stood on the land and among the house ruins where ancestors lived in Ireland, Scotland and Bavaria. Writing in advance to visit the surviving homes is on my courage wish list: one in Hertfordshire, one in Stirlingshire. And whoops, I forgot my Kunkel ancestor’s house in Australia which dates from the 1870s and which I have visited.

Still have an ancestor’s home from the 19th or earlier centuries in the family

Have a family bible from the 19th Century (I know one exists but no idea where it went to before my grandmother died).

hi Michelle, no sadly this one belonged to my Scottish family, the McCorkindales. I’d settle for a bible from any family branch! If you know where a Kunkel bible is lurking then by all means give me a tip off😉 Pauleen

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